- Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Resumen: En este artículo se publican por primera vez las pinturas murales de una cámara funeraria en el pequeño sitio de Chakjobon, en la Reserva Balam Ku, en el sur del estado de Campeche. Por razones estilísticas las pinturas murales... more
Resumen: En este artículo se publican por primera vez las pinturas murales de una cámara funeraria en el pequeño sitio de Chakjobon, en la Reserva Balam Ku, en el sur del estado de Campeche. Por razones estilísticas las pinturas murales deben considerarse contemporáneas a las de San Bartolo en Guatemala. La gran importancia de las pinturas de Chakjobon radica en que contienen dos textos jeroglíficos muy tempranos y, por tanto, complementan el limitado corpus de textos del Preclásico Tardío encontrados in situ. Los signos de escritura muestran fuertes paralelismos con los textos de San Bartolo, pero también con los de la Estela 10 de Kaminaljuyú, y sugieren que ya en el Preclásico Tardío debió existir una comunicación supraregional entre las comunidades de escribas sobre los signos y sobre la escritura en general. Se puede suponer que la escena del trono representada en la pintura, así como los textos escritos, se referían a la persona enterrada en la cámara funeraria. estudios de cultura maya lxi (primavera-verano 2023)
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The use of punctuation marks has not been documented for classic Maya hieroglyphic writing so far. However, we know from colonial Yucatec dictionaries of the 16th and 17th century that there was a term for inserting such marks. Two... more
The use of punctuation marks has not been documented for classic Maya hieroglyphic writing so far. However, we know from colonial Yucatec dictionaries of the 16th and 17th century that there was a term for inserting such marks. Two dictionaries, the San Francisco dictionary and the Diccionario de la Lengua Maya by Juan Pio Pérez mention terms such as t'a h ts'ib "tilde, puntos en la escritura" and u t'ahal sabak, which are compounds based on the nouns t'ah "drops of a liquid", sabak "ink" and tz'ib "writing" respectively. Thunil dzib "drop writing" was another word for "punto en escritura". Colonial Yucatec scribes thus had access to a philological terminology, but we do not know for sure whether these concepts already existed in the pre-Hispanic period, or whether they are the result of contact with European scribal practice. Only a few authors have so far commented on the topic of punctuation in the Ma...
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Among the many logographic signs which so far have escaped decipherment is a head sign which shows a V-shaped stepped design in its interior. The sign has been identified by Eric Thompson (1962) as T1078, and by Martha Macri and Mathew... more
Among the many logographic signs which so far have escaped decipherment is a head sign which shows a V-shaped stepped design in its interior. The sign has been identified by Eric Thompson (1962) as T1078, and by Martha Macri and Mathew Looper (2003) as PE3. A closer look at the sign shows that its full form includes a small attached prefix with "darkness" markings. The example on a shell from Piedras Negras Burial 13 shows that the prefixed sign has a small hook and that it most likely represents an obsidian tool, perhaps a knife, such as the personified obsidian eccentric knife on Piedras Negras Stela 8. This affix has not received previous attention in any of the existing sign catalogues, although it does occurs independently in other contexts, such as within the stela names on the back sides of Copan Stelae F and M. The fact that the sign appears with exactly the same affixation when it has the "knife" sign attached to it and without it indicates that this is ...
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Etude du texte hieroglyphique et de l'iconographie d'un relief maya preclassique final ( 50-200 apr. J.-C.) de la grotte de Lotlun (Yucatan, Mexique), qui constitue l'un des premiers exemples d'iconographie royale de la... more
Etude du texte hieroglyphique et de l'iconographie d'un relief maya preclassique final ( 50-200 apr. J.-C.) de la grotte de Lotlun (Yucatan, Mexique), qui constitue l'un des premiers exemples d'iconographie royale de la region
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Durante la reciente temporada de excavacion del Proyecto Arqueologico Uxul de la Universidad de Bonn, en colaboracion con el Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, se descubrieron una serie de monumentos esculpidos con escenas del... more
Durante la reciente temporada de excavacion del Proyecto Arqueologico Uxul de la Universidad de Bonn, en colaboracion con el Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, se descubrieron una serie de monumentos esculpidos con escenas del juego de pelota. Los monumentos forman parte de dos escaleras de la Estructura K2, el edificio principal del conjunto palaciego real de Uxul, y presentan informacion novedosa sobre la relacion de Uxul con la cercana urbe de Calakmul y los gobernantes de la dinastia Kaan
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Die einzigartigen Eigenschaften der Maya-Schrift stellen die Forschung vor besondere Herausforderungen, aus denen widersprüchliche und zweifelhafte Entzifferungshypothesen hervorgehen. Das Projekt ›Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des... more
Die einzigartigen Eigenschaften der Maya-Schrift stellen die Forschung vor besondere Herausforderungen, aus denen widersprüchliche und zweifelhafte Entzifferungshypothesen hervorgehen. Das Projekt ›Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya‹ verfolgt das Ziel, ein maschinenlesbares Korpus aller Maya-Texte zu erstellen und anhand dessen ein Wörterbuch zu kompilieren. Zur Entzifferung der Schrift ist ein Inventar aller Hieroglyphen ein unverzichtbares Instrument. Dieser Beitrag schildert die Entwicklung des digitalen Zeichenkatalogs unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Modellierung von Entzifferungshypothesen und deren qualitative Bewertung. Weiterhin thematisiert der Beitrag die Rolle der Wissensrepräsentation in Digital Humanities-Projekten.
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The subject of the project is an incompletely deciphered, complex writing system, which the project aims to decipher with the aid of digital tools and to describe its underlying language in a dictionary.
Research Interests: Engineering and milestone
Gegenstand des Projektes ist ein unvollständig entziffertes, komplexes Schriftsystem und unser Ziel ist es, dieses weitgehend mit Hilfe digitaler Werkzeuge zu entschlüsseln und die zugrunde liegende Sprache in einem Wörterbuch zu... more
Gegenstand des Projektes ist ein unvollständig entziffertes, komplexes Schriftsystem und unser Ziel ist es, dieses weitgehend mit Hilfe digitaler Werkzeuge zu entschlüsseln und die zugrunde liegende Sprache in einem Wörterbuch zu beschreiben.
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Im Projekt "Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya" stellt der Zeichen-katalog eine der wichtigsten Komponenten zur Erstellung des digitalen Textkorpus und dessen linguistischer Analyse dar. Für die noch nicht... more
Im Projekt "Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya" stellt der Zeichen-katalog eine der wichtigsten Komponenten zur Erstellung des digitalen Textkorpus und dessen linguistischer Analyse dar. Für die noch nicht vollständig entzifferte Schrift und Sprache des Klas-sischen Maya ist der Zeichenkatalog das essentielle Hilfsmittel zur Identifikation und Klassifikati-on der im Schriftsystem verwendeten Zeichen. Aufgrund besonderer Eigenschaften der Hierogly-phenschrift und der noch unvollständigen und damit auch auf Hypothesen basierenden Entziffe-rung ist eine Neukonzeption zur Inventarisierung und Klassifikation von Mayaschriftzeichen notwendig. Herausforderungen bei der Modellierung stellen sich vor allem bei der Erfassung von Zeichen und deren Zuordnung zu Graphemen sowie der qualitativen Bewertung und Einstufung von Entzifferungshypothesen. Dieser Beitrag konzentriert sich auf die Vorstellung des Zeichenka-talogs und seiner Bedeutung für die Erforschung des Schriftsystems des Klassischen Maya. Dabei wird der gewählte Modellierungsansatz erläutert und die Methode der Anforderungsanalyse unter besonderer Betrachtung des Aspekts der interdisziplinären Arbeit in einem Digital Humanities Projekt beschrieben.
Research Interests: Computer Science and Art
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Excavations at La Sufricaya, a minor ritual group in the outskirts of the Lowland Maya city of Holmul, have documented two mural paintings inside an elite building of Early Classic date (A.D. 300–A.D. 600). One of the paintings is... more
Excavations at La Sufricaya, a minor ritual group in the outskirts of the Lowland Maya city of Holmul, have documented two mural paintings inside an elite building of Early Classic date (A.D. 300–A.D. 600). One of the paintings is mythological in nature (Mural 9). The second bears an inscription with references to calendrical and historical events. It commemorates a notorious arrival date at Tikal on 11 Eb 15 Mak (January 16, A.D. 378) on its first anniversary. The architecture and artifacts associated with the murals combine Maya and Teotihuacan decorative motifs, and offer several parallels with Tikal assemblages. The iconography, epigraphy, and archaeological associations of these murals are discussed in relation to the function of the palace complex. This important new evidence contributes to an understanding of which role relations with Teotihuacan may have played in regional politics in the Maya Lowlands during the Early Classic period from the point of view of a smaller site....
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The project ‘Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan’ aims at creating a machine-readable corpus of all Maya texts and compiling a dictionary on this basis. The characteristics of this complex writing system pose particular... more
The project ‘Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan’ aims at creating a machine-readable corpus of all Maya texts and compiling a dictionary on this basis. The characteristics of this complex writing system pose particular challenges to research, resulting in contradictory and ambiguous deciphering hypotheses. In this paper, we present a system for the qualitative evaluation of reading proposals that is integrated into a digital Sign Catalogue for Mayan hieroglyphs, establishing a novel concept for sign systematisation and classification. The paper focuses in particular on the modelling process and thus emphasises the role of knowledge representation in digital humanities research. 1 Modelling vagueness in the Maya Dictionary project The not yet completely deciphered script of the preColumbian Maya culture is the research subject of the interdisciplinary project ‘Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan’.1 The aim of this long-term project is to record the approximately ...
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Research Interests: Computer Science and DHD
Several logographic signs in Maya hieroglyphic writing resist decipherment because they occur only in a few and semantically very limited contexts. One of these idiosyncratic logograms is the sign which is listed as T284 in the Thompson... more
Several logographic signs in Maya hieroglyphic writing resist decipherment because they occur only in a few and semantically very limited contexts. One of these idiosyncratic logograms is the sign which is listed as T284 in the Thompson catalogue. However, in the case of this sign, a series of syllabic spellings provides a key for its unequivocal decipherment.
Ubicado en el municipio de Hopelchen, proximo a sitios como Huntichmul, Chunhuaymil, Sayil y Labna, Sabana Piletas representa uno de los hallazgos arqueologicos mas importantes de los ultimos anos en Campeche. Su relevancia deriva de la... more
Ubicado en el municipio de Hopelchen, proximo a sitios como Huntichmul, Chunhuaymil, Sayil y Labna, Sabana Piletas representa uno de los hallazgos arqueologicos mas importantes de los ultimos anos en Campeche. Su relevancia deriva de la concentracion y magnitud considerables de su asentamiento, asi como de la presencia de la Escalinata Jeroglifica 1, que constituye hoy en dia el texto mas extenso descubierto en el norte de la peninsula de Yucatan
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One aspect of Maya hieroglyphic writing that continues to fascinate us is its pronounced figurativeness, which finds its greatest expression in head variants of signs and in full figure glyphs. For a more systematic understanding of these... more
One aspect of Maya hieroglyphic writing that continues to fascinate us is its pronounced figurativeness, which finds its greatest expression in head variants of signs and in full figure glyphs. For a more systematic understanding of these personified signs, it is necessary to divide them into two groups. The first class are “essential personifi cations”. These are logograms that render names of anthropomorphic or zoomorphic beings by depicting their heads or other important parts of their bodies. The second class of personified signs are “unspecific personifications”, where there is no natural relationship between sign and meaning. These are most, syllabic signs. The animation of syllabic signs occurs especially in dedication texts. The study of the use and distribution of personified signs helps us to understand the relation between image, anima, and agency in Maya hieroglyphic writing.
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Mit der Entzifferung der Hieroglyphe G9 als yijk’inal „Ort der alten Sonne“ ist die Tür zum Verständnis der gesamten Neunerserie einen Spalt breit aufgestoßen. Wenn sich die neunte Hieroglyphe auf einen Ort bezieht, darf man dies auch von... more
Mit der Entzifferung der Hieroglyphe G9 als yijk’inal „Ort der alten Sonne“ ist die Tür zum Verständnis der gesamten Neunerserie einen Spalt breit aufgestoßen. Wenn sich die neunte Hieroglyphe auf einen Ort bezieht, darf man dies auch von den anderen acht Hieroglyphen in der Serie vermuten. Es handelt sich also sicher nicht um neun „Herren der Nacht“, wie lange Zeit vermutet wurde, sondern um einen davon unab-hängigen und nur in der klassischen Maya-Kultur verbreiteten Kalender-Zyklus.
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This article presents new epigraphic data from southern Campeche, Mexico, at which it focuses on the occurrences of toponyms and emblem glyphs and their meaning for the understanding of the Classic Maya political geography. Observing that... more
This article presents new epigraphic data from southern Campeche, Mexico, at which it focuses on the occurrences of toponyms and emblem glyphs and their meaning for the understanding of the Classic Maya political geography. Observing that several emblem glyphs found in the inscriptions at some recently (re)located archaeological sites are incomplete versions, lacking certain elements characteristic of full emblems, the au-thor labels them ‘toponymic titles ’ and suggests they denote lower positions of the corre-sponding polities in regional political hierarchy. One of the only two full emblem glyphs known so far in southern Campeche corresponds to the Kaan dynasty, during a certain period associated with Calakmul, while the identity of the other one, representing a bat, is questionable, although in the late period it may have been adopted by Oxpemul, a centre that seems to have benefited from the demise of Calakmul. Key words: Maya epigraphy, Classic period, political geography, emb...
not only was the most fully developed prehispanic writing system in the Americas, it also was in continuous use longer than any other writing system invented by prehispanic Indians. The first texts written in a hieroglyphic script that... more
not only was the most fully developed prehispanic writing system in the Americas, it also was in continuous use longer than any other writing system invented by prehispanic Indians. The first texts written in a hieroglyphic script that can be identified as a direct precursor to Maya hieroglyphic writing date to the Protoclassic.1 The last texts written by a literate Maya occur in Diego de Landa's Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán, compiled shortly after the conquest of the peninsula. The Maya writing system was used one and a half thousand years; it survived both the transformation from Early Classic to Late Classic and the so-called "Classic collapse" in the Southern Lowlands.
This article presents new epigraphic data from southern Campeche, Mexico, at which it focuses on the occurrences of toponyms and emblem glyphs and their meaning for the understanding of the Classic Maya political geography. Observing that... more
This article presents new epigraphic data from southern Campeche, Mexico, at which it focuses on the occurrences of toponyms and emblem glyphs and their meaning for the understanding of the Classic Maya political geography. Observing that several emblem glyphs found in the inscriptions at some recently (re)located archaeological sites are incomplete versions, lacking certain elements characteristic of full emblems, the author labels them ‘toponymic titles’ and suggests they denote lower positions of the corresponding polities in regional political hierarchy. One of the only two full emblem glyphs known so far in southern Campeche corresponds to the Kaan dynasty, during a certain period associated with Calakmul, while the identity of the other one, representing a bat, is questionable, although in the late period it may have been adopted by Oxpemul, a centre that seems to have benefited from the demise of Calakmul.
since 2009, the university of Bonn is conducting archaeological investigations at uxul, a medium sized classic Maya city in the extreme south of the Mexican state of campeche. the project’s research goal is to investigate the expansion... more
since 2009, the university of Bonn is conducting archaeological investigations at uxul, a medium sized classic Maya city in the extreme south of the Mexican state of campeche. the project’s research goal is to investigate the expansion and disintegration of hegemonic power in the Maya area, concentrating on the core area of the Maya lowlands and especially on uxul’s close relation to the powerful Kaan dynasty at calakmul. New evidence strengthens the hypothesis that uxul was under the control of calakmul since the early 7th century. also, our data suggest that the downfall and abandonment of uxul were closely related to the fateful defeats of calakmul’s rulers Yukno’m Yich’aak K’ahk’ and Yukno’m took’ K’awiil at the hands of tikal in aD 695 and 736. When the central authority collapsed during the mid-8th century, the shrinking population of uxul was not able to maintain the social cohesion to protect even the most vitally important of infrastructures: its water management system. Ke...
The only partially deciphered Maya hieroglyphic script and language constitute the primary focus of this research project, which has been carried out cooperatively by the University of Bonn and the Göttingen State and University Library... more
The only partially deciphered Maya hieroglyphic script and language constitute the primary focus of this research project, which has been carried out cooperatively by the University of Bonn and the Göttingen State and University Library (Niedersächsische Staatsund Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, SUB)1 since mid-2014 and funded by the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. The project’s goal is to compile a text database and, on this basis, a dictionary of Classic Mayan, the language of a civilization which reached its florescence between A.D. 250 and 950. When the project was inaugurated in 2014, the approximately 10,000 extant text and image carriers that permit a detailed and precise investigation of the Classic Mayan literary language had yet to be systematically documented or comprehensively analyzed. In the context of the project, the text and image carriers will be systematically described according to uniform standards. This source material wi...
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The Lunar Series of Classic Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions still presents intriguing mysteries to the scholar. Although the significance of many of its elements has been discovered thanks to hundred years of research, there are still... more
The Lunar Series of Classic Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions still presents intriguing mysteries to the scholar. Although the significance of many of its elements has been discovered thanks to hundred years of research, there are still significant lacks of understanding. One of the most mysterious components of the Lunar series is Glyph X, whose existence and placement within the sequence was pointed out by Sylvanus Morley a hundred years ago (Morley 1916). Morley was able to show that Glyph X follows Glyph C and precedes Glyph B, and that Glyph B never occurs without the presence of Glyph X. A few years later, John Teeple noticed that the forms of Glyph X co-varied with the coefficient of Glyph C (1930). The different forms of Glyph X were first compared and numbered by Lawrence Roys. Roys’ chart of the forms Glyph X1 to X6 was published by Wyllys Andrews (1934), who tried to show that each form of Glyph X accompanies two consecutive coefficients of Glyph C (Figure 1).
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Resumen Acknowledgments Introduction Comments on Particular Sites El Mameyal La Victoria Altar de los Reyes El Chismito Los Tambores Balakbal Altamira Other sites Concluding Remarks List of Figures Appendix 1: Emergency consolidation... more
Resumen Acknowledgments Introduction Comments on Particular Sites El Mameyal La Victoria Altar de los Reyes El Chismito Los Tambores Balakbal Altamira Other sites Concluding Remarks List of Figures Appendix 1: Emergency consolidation works at Mucaancah by Daniel Juarez Cossio and Adrian Baker Pedroza Appendix 2: Epigraphic Analysis of Altar 3 of Altar de los Reyes by Nikolai Grube Sources Cited Abstract The project represented the fourth season of reconnaissance works in an archaeologically little known region of central Maya Lowlands. Several formerly unknown archaeological sites were surveyed in the southeastern part of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve and in the adjacent region to the east, and two large sites reported by Karl Ruppert’s expeditions in 1930s were reexamined. The location and basic characteristics of the sites, mainly pertaining to the Classic period, were recorded and some surface pottery was collected. At Altar de los Reyes, a major urban center, two main architect...
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In 2002 the Holmul Archaeological Project recorded one of the earliest monumental complexes of religious and political structures in the Maya Lowlands, at Cival, a ceremonial centre 6.5km north of Holmul (Figure 1). First mapped by Ian... more
In 2002 the Holmul Archaeological Project recorded one of the earliest monumental complexes of religious and political structures in the Maya Lowlands, at Cival, a ceremonial centre 6.5km north of Holmul (Figure 1). First mapped by Ian Graham in 1984 and investigated since ...
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Research Interests: Computer Science and Art
The recent discovery of an ancient Late Classic ceramic production facility in a valley floor, east of the current capital of Cobán in Guatemala, reveals a new ceramic form and provides data concerning regional chronology. Among the... more
The recent discovery of an ancient Late Classic ceramic production facility in a valley floor, east of the current capital of Cobán in Guatemala, reveals a new ceramic form and provides data concerning regional chronology. Among the remains are thin, mold-made fragments identified as ceramic plaques that have epigraphic information providing a Long Count date for the first time in the Alta Verapaz region. These data correlate with the preliminary ceramic sequences and assist with understanding political-economic interactions that occurred at a time of societal collapse within the southern lowland region.
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... and 15 and probably Stelae 2 and II when they were complete. The Dwarf-and-Bird Motif Stelae with the depiction of dwarves are quite common in the corpus of Maya art (Miller 1985. Mayer 198ft. ... The dwarf-and-bird motif forms an... more
... and 15 and probably Stelae 2 and II when they were complete. The Dwarf-and-Bird Motif Stelae with the depiction of dwarves are quite common in the corpus of Maya art (Miller 1985. Mayer 198ft. ... The dwarf-and-bird motif forms an iconographie ensemble of siili unknown Fig. ...
Research Interests: Localization and Stele
Maya hieroglyphic script (300 BCE-1500 CE) is a semi-deciphered logographic and syllabic autochthonous writing system from the Americas and is one of the most signicant writing traditions of the ancient world. Because of its incomplete... more
Maya hieroglyphic script (300 BCE-1500 CE) is a semi-deciphered logographic and syllabic autochthonous writing system from the Americas and is one of the most signicant writing traditions of the ancient world. Because of its incomplete state of decipherment, complexity and variation in graphematics, and partially lost lexicon, transliterations cannot be used within the encoding. The project Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan approaches this challenge with an encoding strategy relying on stand-o markup, which is enriched with additional information sources. Using dierent formats (RDF, XML) and standards (CIDOC CRM, TEI P5), the inscriptions are encoded in a multilevel corpus: (1) a tei_all-compliant schema dening values and rules for the encoding of the text's topological and structural features, (2) a "Sign Catalogue"
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Published as:
Las antiguas biografias de los reyes mayas. En: Janaab' Pakal de Palenque, vida y muerte de un gobernante maya, editado por Vera Tiesler y Andrea Cucina, pp. 225-261. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico D.F. 2004
Las antiguas biografias de los reyes mayas. En: Janaab' Pakal de Palenque, vida y muerte de un gobernante maya, editado por Vera Tiesler y Andrea Cucina, pp. 225-261. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico D.F. 2004
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Published as: Nikolai Grube and Ruth J. Krochock, Reading Between the Lines: Hieroglyphic Texts from Chichen Itza and Its Neighbors, in: Twin Tollas. Chichén Itzá, Tula and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by... more
Published as:
Nikolai Grube and Ruth J. Krochock, Reading Between the Lines: Hieroglyphic Texts from Chichen Itza and Its Neighbors, in: Twin Tollas. Chichén Itzá, Tula and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Jeff Karl Kowalski and Cynthia Kristan-Graham, pp. 205-249. Dumbarton Oaks Research library and Collection, Washington, D.C. 2007
Nikolai Grube and Ruth J. Krochock, Reading Between the Lines: Hieroglyphic Texts from Chichen Itza and Its Neighbors, in: Twin Tollas. Chichén Itzá, Tula and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Jeff Karl Kowalski and Cynthia Kristan-Graham, pp. 205-249. Dumbarton Oaks Research library and Collection, Washington, D.C. 2007
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Published in:
The Maya Vase Book Vol. 2, edited by Justin Kerr, pp. 320-330. Kerr Associates, New York
The Maya Vase Book Vol. 2, edited by Justin Kerr, pp. 320-330. Kerr Associates, New York
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Geschichte der archäologischen Forschung in Guatemala bis in die Gegenwart. Erschienen in "Herz der Maya", Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, Neue Folge Band 40. Herausgegeben von Wulf Köpke und Bernd Schmelz, pp.... more
Geschichte der archäologischen Forschung in Guatemala bis in die Gegenwart.
Erschienen in "Herz der Maya", Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, Neue Folge Band 40. Herausgegeben von Wulf Köpke und Bernd Schmelz, pp. 81-112. Hamburg 2010
Erschienen in "Herz der Maya", Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, Neue Folge Band 40. Herausgegeben von Wulf Köpke und Bernd Schmelz, pp. 81-112. Hamburg 2010
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The Maya hieroglyphic script (300 BCE–1500 CE), which has only been partially deciphered, is one of the most significant writing traditions of the ancient world. In 2014, the project Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan was... more
The Maya hieroglyphic script (300 BCE–1500 CE), which has only been partially deciphered, is one of the most significant writing traditions of the ancient world. In 2014, the project Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan was established at the University of Bonn by the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Arts and the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, to research the written language of the pre-Columbian Maya. The project aims to use digital methods and technologies to compile the epigraphic contents and object histories of all known hieroglyphic texts. Based on these data, a dictionary of the Classic Mayan language will be compiled and published near the end of the project’s runtime in 2028. The project is methodologically situated in the digital humanities and conducted in cooperation with the Göttingen State and University Library (Grube & Prager, 2016).
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The project ‘Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan’ aims at creating a machine-readable corpus of all Maya texts and compiling a dictionary on this basis. The characteristics of this complex writing system pose particular... more
The project ‘Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan’ aims at creating a machine-readable corpus of all Maya texts and compiling a dictionary on this basis. The characteristics of this complex writing system pose particular challenges to research, resulting in contradictory and ambiguous deciphering hypotheses. In this paper, we present a system for the qualitative evaluation of reading proposals that is
integrated into a digital Sign Catalogue for Mayan hieroglyphs, establishing a novel concept for sign systematisation and classification. The paper focuses in particular on the modelling process and thus emphasises the role of knowledge representation in digital humanities research.
integrated into a digital Sign Catalogue for Mayan hieroglyphs, establishing a novel concept for sign systematisation and classification. The paper focuses in particular on the modelling process and thus emphasises the role of knowledge representation in digital humanities research.
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Appeared in Hanns J. Prem: Escondido en la selva. INAH/Universität Bonn, Mexico & Bonn 2003.
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Im Projekt "Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya" stellt der Zeichen-katalog eine der wichtigsten Komponenten zur Erstellung des digitalen Textkorpus und dessen lin-guistischer Analyse dar. Für die noch nicht vollständig... more
Im Projekt "Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya" stellt der Zeichen-katalog eine der wichtigsten Komponenten zur Erstellung des digitalen Textkorpus und dessen lin-guistischer Analyse dar. Für die noch nicht vollständig entzifferte Schrift und Sprache des Klassi-schen Maya ist der Zeichenkatalog das essentielle Hilfsmittel zur Identifikation und Klassifikation der im Schriftsystem verwendeten Zeichen. Aufgrund besonderer Eigenschaften der Hieroglyphen-schrift und der noch unvollständigen und damit auch auf Hypothesen basierenden Entzifferung ist eine Neukonzeption zur Inventarisierung und Klassifikation von Mayaschriftzeichen notwendig. Herausforderungen bei der Modellierung stellen sich vor allem bei der Erfassung von Zeichen und deren Zuordnung zu Graphemen sowie der qualitativen Bewertung und Einstufung von Entziffe-rungshypothesen. Dieser Beitrag konzentriert sich auf die Vorstellung des Zeichenkatalogs und sei-ner Bedeutung für die Erforschung des Schriftsystems des Klassischen Maya. Dabei wird der ge-wählte Modellierungsansatz erläutert und die Methode der Anforderungsanalyse unter besonderer Betrachtung des Aspekts der interdisziplinären Arbeit in einem Digital Humanities Projekt beschrie-ben.
No existing digital work environment can sufficiently represent the traditional epigraphic workflow ‘documentation, analysis, interpretation, publication’ for a non-alphabetic writing system. Using the Maya hieroglyphic script, this... more
No existing digital work environment can sufficiently represent the traditional epigraphic workflow ‘documentation, analysis, interpretation, publication’ for a non-alphabetic writing system. Using the Maya hieroglyphic script, this workflow will be transferred to a digital epigraphy. Digital methods and tools will be developed and reused in a Virtual Research Environment to create a freely accessible, annotated textual corpus, including metadata on cultural and object history and references.
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Resumen: En este artículo se publican por primera vez las pinturas murales de una cámara funeraria en el pequeño sitio de Chakjobon, en la Reserva Balam Ku, en el sur del estado de Campeche. Por razones estilísticas las pinturas murales... more
Resumen: En este artículo se publican por primera vez las pinturas murales de una cámara funeraria en el pequeño sitio de Chakjobon, en la Reserva Balam Ku, en el sur del estado de Campeche. Por razones estilísticas las pinturas murales deben considerarse contemporáneas a las de San Bartolo en Guatemala. La gran importancia de las pinturas de Chakjobon radica en que contienen dos textos jeroglíficos muy tempranos y, por tanto, complementan el limitado corpus de textos del Preclásico Tardío encontrados in situ. Los signos de escritura muestran fuertes paralelismos con los textos de San Bartolo, pero también con los de la Estela 10 de Kaminaljuyú, y sugieren que ya en el Preclásico Tardío debió existir una comunicación supraregional entre las comunidades de escribas sobre los signos y sobre la escritura en general. Se puede suponer que la escena del trono representada en la pintura, así como los textos escritos, se referían a la persona enterrada en la cámara funeraria. estudios de cultura maya lxi (primavera-verano 2023)
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The recent discovery of an ancient Late Classic ceramic production facility in a valley floor, east of the current capital of Cobán in Guatemala, reveals a new ceramic form and provides data concerning regional chronology. Among the... more
The recent discovery of an ancient Late Classic ceramic production facility in a valley floor, east of the current capital of Cobán in Guatemala, reveals a new ceramic form and provides data concerning regional chronology. Among the remains are thin, mold-made fragments identified as ceramic plaques that have epigraphic information providing a Long Count date for the first time in the Alta Verapaz region. These data correlate with the preliminary ceramic sequences and assist with understanding political-economic interactions that occurred at a time of societal collapse within the southern lowland region.
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The discovery of Stela 87 in situ in a secondary context, as a reused element of sacralization in a possibly royal residence from the Early Classic, allows us to locate the time of the original function as a stela in the Late Preclassic.... more
The discovery of Stela 87 in situ in a secondary context, as a reused element of sacralization in a possibly royal residence from the Early Classic, allows us to locate the time of the original function as a stela in the Late Preclassic. It is in the Late Preclassic that the image and the text with 4 glyphic signs allude to the ruler represented there. It is in the early part of the Late Preclassic that stelae at Tak’alik Ab’aj and other early cities represent their rulers, still without a long count date.
This was implemented in the second part of the Late Preclassic, of which a good example is Stela 5 (126 ad). For this reason, the iconography and writing of Estela 87 adds another exponent and opportunity, particularly for the Pacific Coast region, to the study of the still small universe of early texts, and more precisely, of the first part of the Late Preclassic (100 BC-50 ad) (Schieber de Lavarreda, 2020a). It is this opportunity that motivated the present collaborative study.
This was implemented in the second part of the Late Preclassic, of which a good example is Stela 5 (126 ad). For this reason, the iconography and writing of Estela 87 adds another exponent and opportunity, particularly for the Pacific Coast region, to the study of the still small universe of early texts, and more precisely, of the first part of the Late Preclassic (100 BC-50 ad) (Schieber de Lavarreda, 2020a). It is this opportunity that motivated the present collaborative study.
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One aspect of Maya hieroglyphic writing that continues to fascinate us is its pronounced figurativeness, which finds its greatest expression in head variants of signs and in full figure glyphs. For a more systematic understanding of these... more
One aspect of Maya hieroglyphic writing that continues to fascinate us is its pronounced figurativeness, which finds its greatest expression in head variants of signs and in full figure glyphs. For a more systematic understanding of these personified signs, it is necessary to divide them into two groups. The first class are "essential personifi cations". These are logograms that render names of anthropomorphic or zoomorphic beings by depicting their heads or other important parts of their bodies. The second class of personified signs are "unspecific personifications", where there is no natural relationship between sign and meaning. These are most, syllabic signs. The animation of syllabic signs occurs especially in dedication texts. The study of the use and distribution of personified signs helps us to understand the relation between image, anima, and agency in Maya hieroglyphic writing.